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Very early days and it was only Sampdoria but think he's a big improvement on the Carrick we've had for the last few years and can play week in week out. More physical in his defending than Carrick, who's more mental in his defending. Thought the midfield in the first half worked really well together and no reason why Herrera can't further improve that, thought Pereira showed he can be an able deputy to him though.

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Be interesting to see how he does as the only holding play in a 3 as he's been playing in a 2 at Chelsea so he will probably be a little bit more exposed but I guess it will come down to how well Herrera/Pogba/Periera/Fellaini develop understandings to make sure that at least 1 can recover quickly if Utd turn over the ball.

Didn't see the game, the only thing I did see was a clip of him booting the ball into some poor girls face by accident. Haha!

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I have to say that I was not excited in the slightest at signing Matic, I was all for Fabinho. Thought Matic was getting on a bit, slow and above all a Chelsea reject. I thought there must be a reason they are letting him go, eg past it a bit.
After watching him yesterday my view has changed dramatically. He has been desperately needed at OT since maybe Keane left! What a difference he made without actually doing anything spectacular. Positional wise unbelievable! Does everything simple and when needed can do the extravagant, eg the looped pass over the top

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He was a class act yesterday now I'm sure there will be games where he struggles against superior opposition where he'll have more to do but he absolutely bossed the middle of the pitch yesterday a real commanding performance both defensively and going forward, not sure we've seen a guy play like that in there since that first season of Hargreaves before he broke himself and became the bitter and twisted man he is now.

The thing I really like is that he's not afraid to drive forward if the chance presents itself, yeah he's 29 and we might only get 2-3 good seasons out of him but sometimes you need that and I think this teams needs a bit of experience. Not many title winners in that side, certainly not in recent times.

Bakayoko might turn out to be a great replacement at Chelsea but I can't believe they allowed him to leave.

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So so good. At least a 9/10 performance. Most passes, most dribbles, 100% duels in the air and on the deck. A combination of aggression, control and tactical awareness we've lacked in the middle for some years. Whereas Carrick likes to sit in space and read a pass, I feel Matic is constantly looking to go to the ball to nick possession and it gets us on the front foot more and it creates better counter attacking opportunities. Gets the whole team playing higher up the field than usual too. What impressed me most however was his work going forward, we knew what he was about defensively from his Chelsea days but here we saw the player that many were talking about when he was at Benfica. As pointed out above, brilliant work from him for the first goal to firstly win the ball and then support the attack and give the West Ham defence another player to worry about. We made plenty of chances in the same fixture last season and other home draws but there were times where we lacked players getting forward with Ibra coming towards the halfway line and the lack of midfield runners but here we had Lukaku with his pace in behind and one of Matic or Pogba getting forward while the other sat.

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So so good. At least a 9/10 performance. Most passes, most dribbles, 100% duels in the air and on the deck. A combination of aggression, control and tactical awareness we've lacked in the middle for some years. Whereas Carrick likes to sit in space and read a pass, I feel Matic is constantly looking to go to the ball to nick possession and it gets us on the front foot more and it creates better counter attacking opportunities. Gets the whole team playing higher up the field than usual too. What impressed me most however was his work going forward, we knew what he was about defensively from his Chelsea days but here we saw the player that many were talking about when he was at Benfica. As pointed out above, brilliant work from him for the first goal to firstly win the ball and then support the attack and give the West Ham defence another player to worry about. We made plenty of chances in the same fixture last season and other home draws but there were times where we lacked players getting forward with Ibra coming towards the halfway line and the lack of midfield runners but here we had Lukaku with his pace in behind and one of Matic or Pogba getting forward while the other sat.

Yeah I noticed that about Matic, where he goes looking for the ball, rather than staying quite static. I wasn't too enamoured when we signed him but that was perhaps not seeing him enough and appreciating his strength. I don't watch as much football as I did - mainly just United matches - but now I can see why Matic is rated so highly. It was a super impressive performance

D

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Made me eat my own words. Correction. Continues to make me eat my own words. Not a fan of buying from rival clubs or older players but talk about the player that was missing in the middle. Team looks totally galvanized behind Matic. Should only get better. Hopefully the injuries this season will be in our favor. He's definitely quickened our attack breaking up plays & initiating the counter. We've also been breaking those plays up higher up the pitch.

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I think I've said before that I really wanted Fabinho and not Matic. I thought he was too slow and maybe Chelsea let him go because they thought he was on the down slide but the guy, to me, is the missing link we have needed for years! He seems to have gelled the team together in a way Carrick could never do. He is direct, passes well, breaks up play, looks FORWARD (Carrick seemed to like sidewards and backwards a lot), protects the back 4, positional play is phenomenal and is always in the right place at the right time. Cant wait for him to score his trademark screamer!

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Really hope we don’t burn him out, he seems to always play 90 minutes, obviously with our lack of options it’s a necessity but he’ll need a rest at some stage. Also Serbia have arranged stupid friendlies both in Asia during the International break, so he’ll be doing a lot of travelling which can burn you out.

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He's had a heavy work load because of the injuries once the walking wounded come back he needs a rest, we need 1 point from our last 2 Champions League games so it might be those games that he sits out along with the trip to Bristol in the League Cup which will also be before Xmas.

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He's not been at the races for a while now. I think he just looks tired all the time but he has played most of the games this season. I'm sure I remember Chelsea fans saying the same thing, he's great from the start of the season but fizzles out.

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Got to agree with the last few comments. He doesn't need to look for anything other then a simple pass most of the time because his main job is just breaking up the play.

Still think that against better sides we need a third central midfielder in there and switch to a 4-3-3. There was a couple of times last night when Pogba drifted forward (which we all want to see) and Matic was isolated and left Ireland alone. Better teams and better players might have taken the chances Ireland got last night which is worrying.

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Your right, Ireland could have scored 2, 1 was a sitter really that Jones did so well to get in front of. We were lax and lazy for 15 mins after the goal when we should be stepping up. Different proposition in the second half though.

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The concern for me is he's not really breaking up play either he doesn't really protect the back 4 that well against Watford, Arsenal & Stoke in the first half players were just flooding through the middle which was a concern but he is on his own defensively as Pogba doesn't really defend. I saw some stats doing the rounds last week that Utd are ranked 19th in the league for tackles and interceptions this season which is pretty worrying and further makes me feel that we are actually rubbish defensively as a team it's just massively covered up by De Gea being brilliant.

I agree in the bigger games I think it'll be a 3 with either Fellaini or Herrera joining our normal 2 but right now I think there is an argument for Herrera starting as the holding midfielder in the 4-1-4-1 over Matic as this is a bit more than a short blip now this has been going on for a few months.

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Herrera's issue is he can't play with Matic in a 2 we saw last season alongside Pogba in a 2 man midfield he's perfectly fine and what he also does in that position is make a lot of interceptions and tackles something Matic just isn't doing at the moment. I think the form has got so bad now that it's not a terrible shout and to be fair in his last few matches Herrera has looked more like the player he was last season.

It may be harsh on Matic playing that position on your own is a hell of an ask of a player and it might be that Mourinho considers it a risk worth taking in certain games at home as it allows him to play 4 attacking players behind the striker.

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Obviously had that extra motivation with it being against his old team but maybe the 3 man midfield helped him a bit as well as he didn't need to cover as big an area on his own with McTominay next to him he had someone who could do some of his running.

Still got my concerns about his sloppy passing at times has a bad habit of playing a simple pass straight to the opposition in a dangerous area.